Even though 70-year-old Liu Guofu, from the city of Changchun, has never touched a glass of wine, his collection of wine glasses and goblets that he has acquired over the past 30 years, is second to none.

Liu Guofu has his collection in a storeroom in chronological order. [Photo by Zhang Yao/Chinanews.com]

He has a marked preference for wine goblets that resemble historic figures or animals or that have paintings on them and, says that his criteria for inclusion include the material and intricacy of the work and the culture it represents, then, to emphasize this, points to several and says, "Look at these here in the shape of figures from Water Margin [shui hu zhuan], the molds took six years to make."

Liu's collection on display at his home, in Changchun, Jilin province, on Dec 2. [Photo by Zhang Yao/Chinanews.com]

As a serious collector, Liu has tried every method he can to fins the objects of his fancy, which include: pick items from a rubbish bin, searching online, or just asking people. And, after years of searching, he has collected more than 10,000.

He concludes by saying, "I'm hoping to open a museum some day to hold my own collection, as well as some paper-cuts and other forms of folk art, you know."

The heaviest one of his goblets weighs more than 10 kilograms, and the lightest, 20 grams. [Photo by Zhang Yao/Chinanews.com]